They were best friends since they were 10. Now one man is dead and the second is charged with his murder.
Stephen Getter, 29, of Olivet was arraigned Monday in Calhoun County District Court in the Dec. 27 death of Robert Barroso, 28, of Battle Creek.
"They both were in love with the same girl," Barroso's mother, Lori Gauthier, 44, of Battle Creek said Monday afternoon after Getter was arraigned.
"It was hard seeing (Getter's) face," she said. "I feel like he didn't show any emotion and it hurts that he would do something like that. They were best friends and they were family."
Gauthier said the two men were friends since they were children and were once brothers-in-law when Barroso was married to Getter's sister.
They have been bitter toward each other for at least a couple of years, she said, after Barroso started dating a woman who used to be with Getter. There was a dispute about which of the two men fathered the woman's child, born about a year ago, said Barroso's 20-year-old brother, Jeremy.
"They were both in love with the same girl and there was a lot of tension," Gauthier said. "Jealousy is what caused all this."
It ended, Calhoun County Sheriff Department deputies said, on Dec. 27. The men argued outside the home on East Kingman Avenue in Battle Creek where Barroso lived with his mother, after he and Getter agreed to fight.
Gauthier said the two men drove away in separate cars but not before she heard Getter say, "I am going to kill you," to her son.
For days she believed her son would return, not knowing he was already dead and left near 20-Mile Road and N Drive North in Lee Township.
Police and Prosecutor David Gilbert said Barroso, who has a 4-year-old son, was shot several times and stabbed at least twice in the neck and face. An autopsy was held Sunday by the Calhoun County Medical Examiner at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine in Kalamazoo.
"I was shocked by what they found," Gauthier said. "I refused to believe that he could have killed him. I was in shock. I can't believe that Stephen would have done something like that."
"How do you be friends for so long and then strip an innocent life from someone who didn't do anything wrong?" Jeremy Barroso said. "For as long as I have known my brother he has been a hard, independent working man. How do you live with yourself, that you have stripped a father from an innocent child. There is nothing that will be said or done that will explain how we feel."
At his arraignment, Getter said he expected to hire his own attorney. A preliminary examination is scheduled for Jan. 23 before District Judge Frank Line. Getter was ordered held without bond by Magistrate Joe Brutsche.
"I just want justice to be served for what he did," Gauthier said. "He took an amazing person from a lot of people. He was full of life and he didn't ask for this."
She said four children - her grandson and three children of Getter - won't have fathers.
Getter was arrested after Barroso's body was found Friday, investigators said Getter admitted to them he was the killer and led them to the scene.
On Jan. 2 Barroso's car was found in a wooded area near Lake of the Woods along 19½-Mile Road in Lee Township. Searches were conducted around the lakeshore and on the frozen lake. Detectives believe the car was left near the lake the night Barroso was killed.
"My brother always wanted to be a pirate," Jeremy Barroso said. "All I can say is he is up in heaven with the treasure he always wanted. His life was taken too soon. It is devastating and tragic.
